A new and fruitful theory of turbulent motion was published in 1941 by A. N. Kolmogoroff. It does not seem to be as widely known outside the U.S.S.R. as its importance warrants, and the present paper therefore describes the theory in some detail before presenting a number of extensions and making a comparison of experimental results with some of the theoretical predictions.

Kolmogoroff's basic notion is that at high Reynolds number all kinds of turbulent motion, of arbitrary mean-flow characteristics, show a similar structure if attention is confined to the smallest eddies. The motion due to these eddies of limited size is conceived to be isotropic and statistically steady. Within this range of eddies we recognize two limiting processes. The influence of viscosity on the larger eddies of the range is negligible if the Reynolds number is large enough, so that their motion is determined entirely by the amount of energy which they are continually passing on to smaller eddies. This quantity of energy is the local mean energy dissipation due to turbulence. On the other hand, the smaller eddies of the range dissipate through the action of viscosity a considerable proportion of the energy which they receive, and the motion of the very smallest eddies is entirely laminar. The analytical expression of this physical picture is that the motion due to eddies less than a certain limiting size in an arbitrary field of turbulence is determined uniquely by two quantities, the viscosity and the local mean energy dissipation per unit mass of the fluid.

The mathematical method of describing the motion due to eddies of a particular size is to construct correlations between the differences of parallel-velocity components at two points at an appropriate distance apart. Kinematical results analogous to those for turbulence which is isotropic in the ordinary sense are obtained, and then the scalar functions occurring in the expressions for the correlations are determined by dimensional analysis. The consequences of the theory in the case of turbulence which possesses ordinary isotropy are analysed and various predictions are made. One of these, namely that dimensionless ratios of moments of the probability distribution of the rate of extension of the fluid in any direction are universal constants, is confirmed by recent experiments, so far as the second and third moments are concerned. In several other cases it can be said that relations predicted by the theory have the correct form, but further experiments at Reynolds numbers higher than those hitherto used will be required before the theory can be regarded as fully confirmed. If valid, Kolmogoroff's theory of locally isotropic turbulence will provide a powerful tool for the analysis of problems of non-uniform turbulent flow, and for the determination of statistical characteristics of space and time derivatives of quantities influenced by the turbulence.